Dota 2 Workshop Tools Alpha Now Available

The Alpha release of the Dota 2 Workshop Tools is now available, Valve announced today, allowing users to create and share custom maps and game modes using the new set of tools.

“This is a developer focused release and currently has high system requirements which means not everyone will be able to run the tools,” reads the announcement post. “At the moment the tools require a 64-bit version of Windows and a Direct3D 11 compatible GPU. We are working on expanding the number of PC configurations (including 32-bit OSes like Windows XP) that will be able to run this but wanted to get the tools out there so developers could start working on their Custom Games.”

As outlined on the game’s Steam page, the alpha version provides the ability to upload and distribute user generated content through the Workshop. Workshop Tools support will be extended to more systems, such as 32-bit and Direct3D 9, in future releases.

Reddit user RoyAwesome and "the source reverse engineering community" believes that the Workshop release isn't just a modding platform but the soft launch of Valve's Source 2 game engine. The user points to a screenshot of the directory path that mentions Source 2 and states the biggest evidence is "that script also allows for different dlls to load and render different assets (vmaps are rendered by worldrenderer.dll, etc). This is a completely new architecture from Valves previous system."

We have reached out to Valve for validation of the claims and Source 2's relationship with the recent Worksop release.

Valve also revealed that the Goblin Techies hero from the original Dota game, which made its Dota 2 debut at The International 4 last month, will be released this month. The team working on the content is putting the “final touches on the explosive gang” and aims to unleash it by the end of the month.

Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her often inappropriate mumblings on Twitter.